Quote:
Originally Posted by jaymas9
How have album releases been de-emphasized? A lot of my favorite bands release albums all the time and at a much faster clip than the dmb...old and new artists alike.
Also, I don't know what world you're living in...but downloading music for free is a pop culture phenomenon of a long time ago. Streaming services like spotify give us access to thousands of artists who may never have been able to make it big in the archaic traditional model, but guess what...they release albums just like the old days. Do people more easily listen to single songs? Absolutely, but that doesn't stop bands from releasing new material as albums. Dave's completely out of touch here.
And the torrent argument doesn't hold up. What torrent are you grabbing that has new, great material by the band. The point is, that comment says to me he's really not taking seriously the idea of releasing new music they believe in...it's more of a "ehhh whatever" attitude and like I said, it's out of touch.
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Umm, yeah, cuz free downloading is totally a thing of the past. No one does that anymore
Point being, go back 15-20 years ago and a traditional album release through a label was pretty much the only way to get music out to the masses. Now we have streaming services and the ability to download anything you want a la carte. Which has been been fantastic for fans to be able to pick and choose what they want. It has also, to some extent, de-valued the traditional album as a mandatory vessel for music distribution.
As an example, last year Beck released "Dreams" as a one off single that got considerable radio play without being a part of any album.
So yes, while most bands do still release albums of material, it has become less essential to do so. Especially for a band like DMB that has always been more of a live band, has always introduced new material on tour, and has always allowed for the free distribution of that live material. Maybe you're not crazy about songs like VITR, DOTHS, or B&BB, but they are available for download. And if you aren't into those songs, chances are you weren't going to like them any better on an album anyway.
Personally, I'm in the "damn, I really wish there was a new album" camp, but if Dave wants to acknowledge the reality that an album isn't necessarily essential anymore I'm not going to get all pissy about it. This band has clearly given all of us enough enjoyment to inspire us to take to the Internet to argue with strangers about their every move. As far as I'm concerned, they don't "owe" us another album if they aren't feeling it, as much as I hope it does eventually see the light of day.